Medicine

The type of bacteria which caused the European "Black Death" plague in the mid-1300s has been identified as Yersina pestis, according to a news report on CNN.com. That particular strain of bacteria no longer seems to exist, although a different form still affects people in a number of countries.

A lack of "great heaps of dead rats in all the waterfront sites" has led The Black Death in London author Barney Sloane to conclude that the rodents were not the cause of plague in 14th century England. "The evidence just isn't there to support it," he said.

Medical historians and students of illuminated manuscripts will want to take a look at the Wellcome Library's Arabic manuscript collection, which includes some of its most important texts of Arabic medicine.

How did Christopher Columbus really change history? Not by the "discovery" of the New world, but by ecological convulsion, the exchange of plants, animals and diseases between the two continents. Such is the premise of Charles C. Mann's new book 1493.

In the early 16th century, Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen, a knight - and rogue - of the Holy Roman Empire, found his hand ripped off by a cannonball during the Siege of Landshut. This did not stop the staunch German, however, who had an iron prosthetic crafted to replace the appendage. PG-13 for language.

Long before grills and gold caps, Vikings used tooth decoration as a way to intimidate their enemies. Evidence can be seen in the intricate horizontal patterns filed into the teeth of Viking warriors found buried in Dorset.

Bring on the Pennsic chocolate milk! New studies by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have shown that a chocolate milkshake after a hard workout might be more beneficial than water or an isotonic sports drink.

For centuries, people have dreaded the diagnosis of the STD Syphilis, but where did the name originate? Acording the the website Science Friday, Syphilus was the name of the hero of a epic poem written by Hieronymus Fracastorius in 1530.

The scull of a leper who died fighting is one of several interesting burials identified at an Italian cemetery used between 500 and 700 CE. The cemetery likely contains remains of Germanic Lombards or Avars.

A team of researchers, based at the University of Mainz in Germany, have confirmed that fleas were responsible for spreading the plague that wiped out over half of the population of 14th century Europe.

The myth of Irish giants such as Fionn Mac Cumhail may contain a grain of truth, according to a recent genetic study. DNA may show that a strain of gigantism ran through five families in the northern part of the country.

Mistress Christianna MacGrain reports on the formation of the Modern Humours Yahoo Group, a discussion forum "open to all persons interested in historical reenactment while dealing with food sensitivities."

Corrective lenses have a long history. Glasses filled with water and gems were used by Romans in the 1st century, while the Chinese developed spectacles in the 13th. In an article for the Telegraph, Victoria Ward looks at the history of eyeglasses.

Several new studies of the Bubonic Plague, which devasted Europe in the Middle Ages and the 17th century, have led researchers to the conclusion that the disease originated in China and was carried west over the Silk Road.

Archaeologists working at the site of a former Leper Hospital at St Mary Magdalen in Winchester, England believe the hospital may date to the 11th century, making it the earliest known hospital in Britain.

An international group of scientists has produced a new study establishing Yersinia pestis as "the etiologic agent of modern plague." The study is especially interested in the second pandemic or the "Black Death" which ravaged Europe from 1347 until 1750.

"Interestingly it was the peasant class, whose diet would class today as healthy," said Dr Iona McCleery, a lecturer in medieval history at Leeds University, who heads a program which uses history to encourage children to eat better.

For the past nine years, archaeologists have been excavating what they believe is Iceland's oldest hospital, dating to the early 16th century. The building, located near Skriduklaustur in east Iceland, was part of a monastery.

For centuries, it was theorized that Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello were murdered, but new evidence shows that their deaths were from natural causes.

Discovered in 1991 in Gloucestershire, England, a small pile of 11th century human feces has become something of a phenonmenon with the British public, drawing 11,000 visitors to the Discovery Zone of the Cheltenham Science Festival. Recently the exhibit was displayed at the Tewkesbury Medieval Fair.

That traditional jar of pickles on the list table is not just a superstition or a tasty snack. It turns out that, as athletes have long believed, pickle juice is effective at relieving exercise-induced muscle cramps.